/ 19 September 2009

How will Hlophe answer?

Will he pitch or won’t he? Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe could well take up a position at the South African Judicial Education Institute, but he is also scheduled to settle into a hot seat in front of the JSC this Sunday at 4pm.

The Mail & Guardian canvassed members of the legal fraternity on some tough questions the JSC should level at Hlophe.

  • The JSC found that your allegations about a political campaign against you waged by Chief Justice Pius Langa and his deputy, Dikgang Moseneke, were unfounded. Are you prepared to make a public apology to both men?
  • The Justice for Hlophe group pushing for your elevation recently said: ”The public needs to take a stand: no more shall ‘house negroes’ be placed at the helm of key institutions!” Do you support this and other statements the group has made in supporting you?
  • It is understood that you have failed to declare a portion of your income to Sars timeously. Please specify how much and how you earned it.
  • Reports say that you first denied receiving any payment from Oasis; then that you admitted receiving payments only for ”out-of-pocket expenses”; and finally that you conceded receiving ”expense payments for [your] expertise”. Which was it, exactly?
  • You denied on national television in October 2005 ever calling attorney Joshua Greef a ”piece of white shit who should go back to Holland”? Greef and advocate Dirk Uijs stated under oath that you uttered these words in your chambers on August 31 2005; and you have said their doing so was a racist campaign against you. Do you still maintain this?
  • Why is it that when Langa, retired Supreme Court of Appeal president Craig Howie and Judge President Bernard Ngoepe came to Cape Town in October 2005 to discuss these allegations you declined to take the matter further?